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Biden or Trump? Why being undecided in 2020 might not be such a bad thing

October 27, 2020
I'm an undecided unicorn voter in US Election 2020. Independents could be the new progressives needed to bridge the divide.
red and blue pouch on white paper
Photo by Tiffany Tertipes on Unsplash
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Sienna Mae Heath

I am the undecided unicorn voter you've been searching for. And I am not undecided really — I am morally torn.

Being torn in half by two questionable choices is nothing new for me. My first time was post-9/11, when President Bush declared the Axis of Evil and insisted, "You're either with us or against us." I was a 12-year-old "other" — a white half-Middle-Eastern kid shunned to the margins of a town filled with churches and pizza places.

I lived in the grey nuances then, and now, being an undecided voter in the 2020 U.S. Election, I am eager to mix the blue and red parties and make America purple.

And I am not alone.

About 42 percent of Americans identify as independents, according to this recent Gallup poll. "Millions of independent thinkers — polled at almost 70 percent of the American population and labeled 'the exhausted majority' [in 2019]— are harboring intense feelings of political homelessness and ideological isolation," as Bridget Phetasy explores in 'The battle cry of the politically homeless.'

Here's what this means for me as a voter.

My conscience cannot rest voting for Trump, whose words have been deemed "the language of domestic violence." Even amid orders the current administration passed to protect women and children from trafficking. Then there's Biden who, despite introducing the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), is all too keen to avoid the #MeToo movement and take a page from Bill Clinton's "I did not have sexual relations with that woman" playbook.

Meanwhile, Biden is tranquilizing yet another elephant in the room — the nearly indisputable video footage of him touching young girls without their consent.

I am not a mother.

Maybe if I was, I'd pounce at the opportunity to embolden one evil to defeat another for the sake of our collective child of a revolution — the United States of America. I am single, and as I write these words, I anticipate loved ones who read them might leave me more alone than I've ever been. That's what happens when you let two evils tear you apart — light floods your solitude.

Love comes in through the cracks.

In June, I attended a Black Lives Matter protest in my little hometown of Pen Argyl, which is notoriously known as racist, in Pennsylvania — a swing state. As my mom and I ran with our signs to catch up with the BLM crowd, a man with the counter-protest holding his All Lives Matter sign sacrificially cheered, "God bless America!"

My instinct was to send it back to him. I smiled and said, "God bless America!" My mom was confused. I was a little confused too. So we moved on to join what may be written as the right side of history.

Suddenly, the pastel flags, block-print of the contrasting signs, the sideline chants in favor of the police, and the gratitude we had for the police who were keeping the peace that fateful day, they all…blurred for me. I had arrived anxious and angry, and as we chanted,"This is what America looks like," I grinned.

Yes. This is what America looks like. And if I can feel at peace here, so can many. So can the collective.

I flashed back to my early birthday parties when we'd parade these same streets the KKK marched not long ago. Every October, my mom would teach my small group of friends that Columbus Day was not all it's cracked up to be. Columbus was lost. The Native Americans found this beautiful land first.

Nonetheless, this is what America looks like: lost children parading streets their ancestors commandeered. I heard my inner child and the friends of decades ago playing flutes and ringing bells. In June 2020, I heard pieces of the past, the present, and the future. I heard hope. And I can't for the life of me, let that go.

At the BLM protest, I turned to my mom in tears and said: "Everyone finally came to the party."

Screenshot via Twitter


There is hope between the terror and the fear.

There is swinging between the poles. I am loving all of you more than you know and I'm aware that so many see our state of affairs as right and wrong, good and evil, left and right. The truth is made of all of us. It's complicated. I fell asleep in 2019 as a pessimistic liberal and am rising in 2020 an optimistic independent.

I never knew true optimism until I tested my pessimism.

Even now, that hope is wavering, it's vibrating; that's how I trust it's alive and well. I wish this feeling would continue to spread. In response to the Tweet going around about undecided voters, yes, I know not to eat bees, and yes, it does take me a while to get dressed some mornings. I am living in a humid haze of sorts, and I'd rather be here than frigid at the north or south poles. Polarization is natural. But it's okay to live near the Equator. It's warm here.

Still, my mental health doesn't seem to matter to the amplified social media personas who might rather see me fall than watch Biden or Trump rise. That's how I know something is deeply awry. If you don't hashtag your posts and apologize for featuring white daisies on your gardening Instagram, then you're assumed to be against one agenda and, by default, for the polarized agenda.

This is not freedom.

Any writer like me who is hesitating to wield their pen for fear of losing love and money knows it. Any person who is tired of choosing one abuser over another knows it. Anyone who fears being shunned knows it.

This is a testing time and also a tender time. I get it. The pain is so wide. The love is so wide. Every event means something different for each of us, and that's okay. As for me, I'm finished with the shaming and blaming. I'm resisting the urge to play the victim or the savior.

I've played those roles already. Domestic Violence Awareness Month is now, October 2020, and it is not just for survivors like me — it is for all of us. We are collectively caught in the cycle of abuse, and the healing could be even wider than the wound. The current system needs to change before we can fully recover. This is not democracy, not Trump's America, not Biden's America.

And if you look closer with progressive journalists like Kim Iversen, you might find yourself torn by the two parties, on the sidelines, or simply resting somewhere between the two.

Deeper Iyer, Solidarityls and Building Movement Project Creative Commons



"Salute the history [but] Wall Street has the ticket they want" — Nina Turner on Kamala Harris as VP


If you can make space, click on any of these links to get a more concrete sense of where I'm coming from. I know it's a lot to digest during this epic reality war we are in, and I'm thankful so many of us have our hands on deck searching for truth on the horizon.

Winning this reality war starts with getting real with ourselves. I am not here to lecture or to prove. I'm just here to offer perspective on why your neighbor's lawn might seem unbiased.

Centrists may be a sighing breed, but we're not dying out. We're rising beneath the surface. We're talking. We're reclaiming power through flowing kindness. Sanders voters are quietly bonding with possible Trump voters, and I see little shame in that. While such unfathomable unity is being censored, one truth of many is coming: Independents, libertarians, and moderates could be the new progressives to unite the parted sea and sail forward. If only we weren't so afraid.

So yes, I will be voting on November 3rd.

I think it's important that many people vote so that we can get a clear picture of the pie, and then ask why. I just don't see myself voting for Trump or Biden. Maybe I'll regret my indecision, but today voting for one feels like I'd be denying the other base of America their truth.

There is more than a villain or a savior. There is common ground. There is a grey area between right and wrong. And I cannot lead you to that place. I just want to reassure the anxious with calm: Don't worry, peace exists in the margins. I have hope that no matter which candidate wins, the people will win their power. The people will win the election.

Being an undecided voter in the 2020 US Election is an off-beat stance. You can call me a unicorn, for I am not easily offended. I am not a fantasy. I am a real living breathing human being. And I surrender. My opting out of the mob culture is not a protest — it is a submission.

I submit to the good will of the people I know of all parties and hope and pray that there is a more positive energy among this than not. I surrender my body to the men who have felt entitled to fighting for its "rights" for so long, for I am more than a body. I am a mind. I am a heart.

And both my heart and mind are ready to drop the labels. Each of us has a part to play in 2020. And mine is expanding the blank spaces between the stark lines where I am blurring them beautifully. I am grateful for every effort, every poll worker, every protestor, every vote, every voice. And I hope for the sake of your own peace, you can be thankful for what I have to offer. If not, you're free to unfriend me. This is America.


"Whether this is my end or a new beginning I have no way of knowing: I have given myself over into the hands of strangers, because it can't be helped. And so I step up, into the darkness within; or else the light." –Margaret Atwood


Before you react here in the digital realm, think quietly. Ask questions. What are you willing to overlook and why? What of the old are you willing to release and what of the new are you willing to welcome? Which relationships could transcend the shift? If your pure desire for belonging and love solely rests in the soiled palms of two political parties, this is just not right…or left. It's neither.It's both.

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What can possibly be done to hold America together? Start by signing this letter if it speaks to you.

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Image by Deepa Iyer (Solidarity Is and Building Movement Project). Where are you seeing yourself here?
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Can tech help female entrepreneurs break the bias?

Women founders continue to come up against common challenges and biases
Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash

Written by Kelly Devine, Division President UK & Ireland, Mastercard

Starting a business may have historically been perceived as a man’s game, but this couldn’t be further from reality. Research shows women are actually more likely than men to actively choose to start their own business – often motivated by the desire to be their own boss or to have a better work-life balance and spend more time with their family.

The recently published Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurship 2021 found that in the category of 'Aspiration Driven Entrepreneurship’ – capturing those who actively choose to start their own business – women in the UK surpass men: 60% vs 56%. And Mastercard research from February 2022 found 10% of female business owners started their business in the past two years compared to 6% of men – meaning women were 67% more likely to have started a business during the pandemic.

Yet, there are common challenges that women founders continue to come up against - not least the gender imbalance in the household and long-held biases which are still prevalent.

In the UK, women are almost three times more likely to be balancing care and home commitments than men, and this was exacerbated during the pandemic as the additional barriers of school closures and lockdowns meant that the care time of dependents rose significantly on a day-to-day level for women. In addition, women were less likely to have access to a home office, greatly impacting the work they were able to accomplish when working from home was the only option.

It's also widely known that female business owners are still more likely to struggle to access funding for their business ideas. According to Dealroom, all-women founding teams received just 1.4% of the €23.7bn invested into UK start-ups in 2021, while all-male leadership teams have taken almost 90% of the available capital.

Without financial support, and when juggling significant time pressures both at home and at work, how can women grow their companies and #BreaktheBias (as this year’s International Women’s Day termed it)? What tools or support can save them time and money, and give them the headspace they need to focus on building their business?

With female owned businesses collectively estimating revenue growth of £120 billion over the next five years, solving this problem is bigger than supporting women – it’s about supporting the national economy.

Using tech to level the playing field

There are clearly societal issues at play that need to be resolved. But when we look at the rise in technology businesses during the pandemic, we can plainly see an alternative source of support critical for business growth: digital tools.

A third of female business owners say new technologies will be crucial to the success of their business in the future and one in five say it is the most important thing for business growth.

With new technology comes new ways to pay, create, and work. And yet there are barriers that prevent business owners accessing this technology. Women are significantly more likely to say they want to use more digital tools but don’t know what is best for their business and also more concerned about the security of digital tools.

When technology is adopted by businesses – whether using online accounting solutions or messenger services for communicating with staff – it saves them time, allows them to maintain and grow their customer base, and ultimately increases cost savings and profit.

By drastically improving the training and support that is available to women-owned business to access and utilise technology we will allow these businesses to grow and succeed. And we know there is demand for it.

Research done by the IFC and Dalberg shows that female entrepreneurs are more likely to invest time and money in business development. This includes product development, customer base expansion, and digital tools and training and there are plenty of services available offering this type of support – many of them for free.

One such programme is Strive UK – an initiative of the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth – which aims to reach 650,000 micro and small business owners across the UK and empower them with the tools they need to thrive in the digital economy through free guidance, helpful tools and one-to-one mentoring.

Working together with small business experts – Enterprise Nation, Be the Business and Digital Boost – we hope to ensure hundreds of thousands of UK female business owners have the tools they need to succeed and reach their ambitious goals. Because this ambition remains strong in the UK, with female business owners largely optimistic about the future despite the multitude of challenges they are facing. Four in ten say they will grow their business in the next five years – compared to only a third of male business owners – and they’re also 35% less likely than men to say they plan to downsize or close the business.

But if we do not empower female entrepreneurs to access the tools and technology they need to grow, there is a risk this optimism could be misplaced. Support programmes that provide business owners with guidance and mentorship can help ensure this isn’t the case, allowing female entrepreneurs to not only survive but thrive in the months and years ahead.